Second Chances
by ZAPBETH
Summary: Ginny is confronted by Harry after the war against Voldemort is won. [songfic, oneshot, HG]


**A/N: Set after Harry defeats Voldemort, and yeah… Song is called "Sound of Your Voice" and is by the Barenaked Ladies. Review please!**

_The moon is full_

_But there is an incompleteness_

_The days are beautiful_

_But I feel a bitter sweetness_

I burrowed my head further into my pillow as I heard my mother start her morning with cooking breakfast. Each morning that I had spent here had started this way, though the amount of breakfast made had lessened quite a bit as her sons had left. I heard my brother start to stir in his bedroom, groaning at the sight of the sun in his window and his best friend sigh and call him in soft tones that it was nearly seven o'clock. I heard the woman in the bed next to me rise slowly into a sitting position and yawn loudly.

I heard the two males upstairs walk across the floor and open the door, one moving away towards the bathroom and one plodding down to the kitchen beneath. I heard Hermione stand up, a yawn probably still on her face. I heard her walk to my bed and touch me slightly, as if I would break. She had been that way ever since she had left with Harry and Ron to rid the world of Voldemort and abandoned me in fear.

_If I had a wish, or even a choice, I'd wake up to the sound of your voice_

_Oh, how I miss waking up to the sound of your voice_

"Ginny, your mother told all of us to get up early today," Hermione said, whispering smoothly to me. "I know you are still mad at us, but breakfast is in just a little bit." With that, she fell silent and threw on her clothes as fast as she could, flinging on her old battered black robes from Hogwarts. She departed from the room that we had shared despite our differences for a little over a week and started to step softly down the stairs to the main floor.

With a soft sigh and an urge to dig my head even further into my well-used pillow, I lifted my head up and pulled my body up to follow. The day was bright outside my window, and the sounds of people talking floated up the stairs, though only specks of the conversation could be heard and understood. "She'll come around, Harry, dear," I heard my mother saying in her usual motherly voice.

I rose from my sheets and blankets and, without another thought about how I was going to avoid Harry today, grabbed my clothes. I pulled them on, quietly humming a song of the Weird Sisters to keep my mind off of the day ahead, and tied my hair back into a carefree ponytail before opening the door and setting off down the stairs. My fingers felt their way into my pockets, where they hung automatically, and the walk down was quickly over and I was facing the door into the kitchen, voices still coming out without worry.

_I let you down_

_And fell right off of your good list_

_I hope each day you'll find peace_

_And forgiveness_

I went to kiss my mother on the cheek, and unfortunately, I caught a glimpse of both Harry and Hermione with toast in their hands. They looked at me, half expecting that I would suddenly bolt from the room as I had been doing the last week, and I met their expectations. I grabbed a piece of toast, not thinking about anything on the lines of butter or marmalade, and flew out of the back door before anybody said anything to me. "Ginny Weasley!" I heard my mother call as the door slammed shut behind me.

As I walked quickly to the refuge that I had taken to spending all day in, I bit back my tongue from screaming out in anger at myself. I was nearly seventeen years old, and I still couldn't manage to deal with conflicts without running away constantly. When I had arrived at the tree that shaded my hideaway, I sunk down onto the grass, my head in my hands, and crossed my legs.

_The alarm clock rings_

_What a lonely noise_

_And I long for the sound of your voice_

_Oh, how I miss waking up to sound of your voice_

I sat there a while, unaware of anything that was happening in the house behind me, and time passed slowly as I had absolutely nothing to do. My hair was mussed up in every possible direction as I clumsily ran my fingers again and again through it. I was so distracted in my own thoughts about how pathetic I was that I did not hear the twigs snapping as a man approached almost carelessly the tree.

"Ginny?" a voice came, and I snapped my head up to see Harry standing there a little more comfortable than he would have been a month before with a bandage still over his forehead. His face was regaining the color since two weeks before when he had faced off with Voldemort.

"Is it still bleeding?" I asked, gesturing up toward his forehead, which had suddenly started pouring out blood as soon as Voldemort had died, nearly causing him to bleed to death. He had spent a week in St. Mungo's and had spent the last week in the Burrow with his best friends. Nobody, except perhaps Harry himself, knew the reason why the wound had not stopped bleeding for nearly a week.

_Take it from me: there's not much to see_

_In this void_

"No, it stopped just after I was released from St. Mungo's," Harry said, sitting on the grass in front of me and glancing toward the pond. "But I'll always have a scar there. There's no hope at all for me anymore." He suddenly laughed at this. He had been doing so a lot since the fall of the Dark Lord and his followers, as if a sudden weight had been lifted off of his back that had started to make him stoop like an old man.

"You know," he said suddenly, finally making up his mind to unleash everything he had been thinking, "it wasn't really abandonment. I was trying to protect you, even if you found a way to catch up with us." He smiled at the memory of the day when they had realized that after I was informed that Hogwarts was officially closed due to the death of Dumbledore, I had followed them constantly, figuring out what they were doing.

_The saying goes_

_There will be other dances_

_This little song is about_

_Second chances_

"I guess I'll come to my senses someday," I said, feeling an odd resentment at my mother's words and sensing the sarcasm dripping off my tongue. He sunk down onto the grass in front of me and clenched his fingers into a fist. Surprisingly, even after everything that he had been through and the fact that he killed the greatest Dark Lord in history, I wasn't scared that he would hit me.

"Ginny," Harry said with an undertone of clear exasperation in his voice. "I don't know why you are so mad at me, but I don't want our friendship to end this way." He ran his hands through his hair, his green eyes staring directly at me, and I turned my head slightly to the left and eyed him thoughtfully. He looked sincere, the boyish aura still present, and his posture looked relaxed, though slightly anxious.

_Just say the word_

_And I will rejoice_

_And wake up to the sound of your voice_

"I didn't choose it to end like this, you know," I said with a small smile. "You did break up with me, and you are the one who decided that I wasn't welcome to join you three." I added these statements in with what I supposed to be a little twist of the knife in the wound, but he didn't react at all like I had expected him to. He didn't defend himself and his decisions.

"Please, Ginny, I want to move on from all of that," Harry said with a grimace from what I assumed to be remembering the war that had ended. "I want to be at peace, have a family, have a career. I want you to be able to move on with me." I stared up at him with wide eyes at his sudden change of the direction of the conversation.

_Oh, how I miss waking up_

_To the sound_

_To the sound_

_To the sound_

_To the sound_

"I know this may sound odd after all this," Harry said, gesturing with his hands as if to form an image of the war. "But I still want to be with you, and I don't know if you want the same thing, but I want a second chance." I gulped, quickly asking myself if I was ready to give him what he wanted. "I'm trying not to be that moody teenager anymore," he added with a soft laugh.

"I understand," I said slowly as if I didn't trust myself enough to say it quickly. "I'll give you another chance." I saw his eyes light up as my words registered in his head, and the green orbs sparkled in the morning sun. "You had better go tell Mum, and she'll probably shriek," I added with a grimace on my face.

_Waking to the sound of your voice_

_Take it from me: there's not much to see_

_In this void_


End file.
